Singing show tunes may help people with dementia

Seniors' brains may be brought to life with the sound of music. New
research shows that singing show tunes may be able to help dementia
patients regain some cognitive skills.

A four-month study conducted in a nursing home revealed that
residents who joined in during group sing-alongs showed more cognitive
benefits than residents who just sat around and listened. The
improvements were seen in patients who already had moderate to severe
dementia.

"Even when people are in the fairly advanced stages of dementia, when
it is so advanced they are in a secure ward, singing sessions were
still helpful. The message is: don't give up on these people. You need
to be doing things that engage them, and singing is cheap, easy and
engaging," Jane Flinn, a neuroscientist at George Mason University in
Virginia who was not involved with the study, commented to The Guardian.

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Researchers looked at two small groups of elderly people, one had
people with moderate dementia and the other had people with more severe
cases of the disease which required them to be housed in a secure ward.

All of them were enrolled in 50-minute group sessions that met three
times a week. Half of each group sang along with familiar show tune
songs including "The Sound of Music," "When You Wish Upon A Star" and
"Somewhere Over the Rainbow." The other half just listened.

Before the classes, subjects took a 30-question test of cognitive
skills called the Mini-Mental State Examination test (MMSE) then
completed a task which involved drawing hands on a clock face after they
were given a specific time. Before the classes, everyone in the
moderate and severe dementia groups had similar cognitive test results
respective to their counterparts.

After the sessions, those that sang along had more improved scores on
both cognitive tasks compared to participants that just listened.

"These data show that participation in an active singing program for
an extended period of time can improve cognition in patients with
moderate to severe dementia," the researchers wrote.

The researchers also looked at brain scans of the subjects as they
sang or listened to show tunes. The listeners had more activity in the
temporal lobe on the right side of the brain, while watching someone
else instruct lit up the visual areas. Singing and speaking activated
the left side of the brain more.

The Alzheimer's Society
in the U.K. already offers a "Singing for the Brain" class as a way for
people to join in song. They point out that recalling lyrics helps
people exercise their ability to remember past memories for song and
music, which for some reason is easier for people than trying to
remember other things.

The study was presented at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego on Nov. 9, and is considered preliminary.